Glimpse Beyond the Illusion
by Rhino7
Summary: The only thing worse than being attacked by your enemies was being attacked by the people you protect. The Restoration Committee knows that all too well.


**Glimpse Beyond the Illusion**

**By Rhino7**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This one-shot is mine. Not sure what inspired this, because oddly, the campus dorms are FREEZING. Anyway, this fic is stand-alone and is not directly connected to any other stories I've written. Just a little blurb to keep the muse healthy. This was written piecemeal over a week, so I apologize if parts are choppy or inconsistent. The title is from "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas. As always, constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated!**

**..:--X--:..**

The caller ID came up as 'Leon'.

About damn time.

"Hello?" Cid answered.

"Help."

Warning one, Leon didn't ask for help.

"With what? Yuffie said you were gonna call in that information two hours ago." Cid grumbled.

"I was…delayed."

Warning two, he hadn't asked. It had been a plea.

"Shit." Cid spun around in his chair, scowling at the rest of Merlin's rinky dink little house. "Did the engine go out again? Where did you end up?"

"I'm not…I don't know."

Warning three, he didn't sound right.

Cid sat up. "Don't know what?"

The front door opened and the Lockhart girl walked in, like she owned the place or something, giving the one-room first floor an x-ray vision glare before fixing on Cid.

"Have you seen—" She started.

Cid cut her off with a raised hand. He already knew who she was asking for and he was in no mood to humor fangirls, no matter what their cup size was.

"Just woke up." Leon sounded hoarse on the phone.

His attention snapped back to the phone. "Woke up? From what? Beauty sleep won't do you much good if those Heartless break down the Security System again."

Lockhart narrowed her eyes at him and crossed the room toward the stairs. Cid ignored her. She'd already searched Radiant Garden three times to no avail. He didn't have the heart to tell her Cloud had up and left for Land of Dragons a week ago. Eh, she'd find out eventually.

"…but it's locked." Leon was saying.

"What?" Cid rubbed his face. "What's locked?"

A quiet hiss of exasperation…or pain…with Leon it was hard to tell.

"Some sort of…ice box…deep freezer…"

The man was making no sense.

"What deep freezer? Where the Hell are you?" Cid looked at the clock on the wall.

The Security System had been down for three hours now. Two hours ago, Leon and Yuffie had trekked out to the power center deep underground below Ansem the Wise's old office to get it back online. Not fifteen minutes after they'd left, Yuffie had tromped back in, blabbering something about Leon being a prude who didn't trust her around machinery.

Cid blocked her out for the most part, and he had to agree with Leon about that girl around the ships…That was beside the point.

"I don't know." was the hesitant response.

Well, that was never a good sign.

"Are you all right?" Cid asked, frowning at the raspy tone in the younger man's voice.

"Fine."

Like Hell.

"Okay, I'm convinced." He muttered, "You remember what happened?"

Lockhart trudged back down the stairs, looking crest fallen. Honestly, did she have nothing better to do than look for some guy hiding behind the curtains?

"At least I think it's a deep freezer…Feels like an oven…" Leon muttered.

"What?" Cid asked. "Are you drunk?"

"No." Leon started to say something else, but his words were garbled.

"All right, so you're locked in something and you don't know how you got there? You just woke up?" Cid tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

"There's blood in here."

Cid stood straighter, "It yours?"

"I don't—" A grunt of pain, "Yeah, I think so."

This stopped being amusing ten minutes ago.

"Are you still bleeding?" He asked.

Lockhart slowed her pace as she walked over to the front door. Her eyes drifted over to Cid as he mentioned blood. She lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Not…anymore. I don't…think…"

"Hey." Cid snapped, trying to keep his attention. "What's the last thing you remember?"

He pointed at Lockhart and beckoned her over with his arm. Looking nonplussed, she obeyed. He nodded toward the computer.

"Track Leon's cell phone." He couldn't run a scan hunting him down while keeping him conscious at the same time.

The woman looked like she wanted to press for details, but instead she sank into the chair and started plucking at the computer keys. Cid pressed the phone harder to his ear.

"Hey!" He barked into the silence.

"…What?" The delay in response made Cid edgy.

"Keep talking to me. Lockhart is tracking your phone signal."

"Who?"

"Tifa, one of Cloud's friends."

"Blond…"

"No, Cloud's blond. Tifa's got black hair."

"Freezer's s'posed t'be cold."

Cid ground his teeth together. "Right. What was wrong with the Security System?"

"Huh?"

"Did you fix the system? That's the reason you went down there."

"Oh, right…I think so."

Damn it. Cid rubbed his forehead. It sounded like heat exhaustion, which made sense. The heat index had been in the upper-90s and even hitting the triple digits in the past week. The streets were empty save for the stragglers who absolutely HAD to go outside for something. Being locked in a confined space in the sun for two hours was definitely not good in this heat.

"Got it." Lockhart sat straighter. "His phone signal is coming from the roof of the supply warehouse two blocks south of Ansem's office." She relayed.

"All right," Cid turned toward the door. "We got your location. Just keep talking to me, Leon."

Lockhart stood up, "What's going on?"

Cid glanced over his shoulder at her as he opened the front door. "Walk and talk, lady."

She glared indignantly but followed after him.

The heat hit Cid like a brick wall as he stepped out of Merlin's house and into the street. Screw the upper-90s, this was upper-90s plus enough humidity to bend paper, the air was so thick. Losing his breath for a second, he trudged out into the vacant square, setting off at as quick a jog as he dared toward the supply warehouse.

"Mighta been Mike…" Leon's words were hardly coherent now.

"I'll look into that." Cid yammered, going along with him.

"Why is Leon on the roof?" Tifa asked, keeping pace with Cid.

"Because this town is full of bullshit morons." He blurted.

The Security System of Radiant Garden had been set up and initiated by the Restoration Committee. It was a faulty, hit-or-miss system, but it was protection enough to keep the Heartless out of town. The most recent bout of storms in the area had done some damage to the power box that kept the system running, and the Committee had decided to allocate more funds toward fixing the system instead of developing a new one.

Some of the citizens hadn't been too on board with that. They had been pressing for a new system since the fall of Organization XIII, but developing a new system involved a lot of munny and a lot of time, during which Radiant Garden would be naked to any Heartless that fancied to come along. It had been Leon's idea to prolong the use of the current system, and civilians tended not to notice the lack of Heartless most of the week. They only saw the few that breached the system and caused the minor skirmish.

Once they had a more efficient system developed, they'd implement it, but until then, they had to maintain what protection they had now. That had been Leon's reasoning, and Cid had agreed. Lord, they were just turning into economists now, he sighed, and their enemy now was the populace.

The soft static of the phone droned in his ear.

"You think Mike was the leader?" Cid asked loudly into the phone.

Mike was one of the more loudmouth types who had nothing but complaints for how the Committee was trying to run things. One of those "Anything you can do, I can do better" people. One of the reasons Cid would never give up smoking.

No response.

"Leon." He barked into the phone.

Nothing.

"Shit." He hung up and called back, hoping the ring of the phone would snap Leon back from wherever he'd gone.

No such luck.

Cid quickened his pace to a full run and turned the corner to see the supply warehouse sitting between Ansem's office building and one of the smaller, rundown apartment houses. He looked up at the roof, as if there would be a big arrow pointing to his destination.

The door was unlocked, ajar via bolt cutters. Cid groaned at that and shouldered the door open, eyes fixed on the stairs against the adjacent wall. Many of the neatly stacked supplies were a mess on the floor, but it looked like reckless collision rather than evidence of a fight. Narrowing his eyes further, Cid ran over to the stairs.

"Bust open the vending machine, get out all the water you can carry, and get up there." He ordered Lockhart as he started up the stairs.

Sweaty and heavy from the run, the stifled air of the warehouse was another drop in the bucket as he went up the stairs as fast as he could manage. His lungs and his knees were hating him, but they didn't like him much anyway, so what the Hell ever.

He reached the top and pushed open the door opening onto the roof. Stumbling out onto the concrete roof, he gagged as the heat worsened. The dark concrete was soaking up the early afternoon sun and blasting it back at anybody walking over it.

Half of the roof was sheltered by the office building, providing a blanket of shadow on part of the concrete. Unfortunately, half of the roof was still trapped in the angry sunlight, and against the far side of the roof was a silver deep freezer.

"Shit." Cid hissed, running over to the freezer.

The manual latch of the freezer had been jammed and a length of cable tied through the lock hole. Cid pulled a knife out of his belt and slit the cable, pulling it out of the hole and dropping it. He knocked the side of his fist against the lid.

"Leon. Hey." He called, wincing as the stainless steel lid of the freezer sizzled against his skin.

The lack of reply tightened the knot in his gut and he gripped the latch and jerked it out of the jam, throwing open the clasp. His hand burned, but he was too wrapped up in getting the damn thing open to pay the sting much heed.

Sliding his fingers under the grip of the lid, Cid heaved the top of the freezer off and over-extended the hinges. The lid flopped to the roof with a bang. Leon didn't move at all in response to the loud slam or the sudden light pouring into the box. The air heated by the cramped space rose out of the open box and Cid recoiled slightly before leaning forward again. Leon was slumped inanimately against the floor of the freezer, his skin red, clothes and hair dark with sweat, and his cell phone wedged in the crook of his neck.

"Shit." The word of the day.

Cid lowered a hand, pressing his fingers against Leon's neck and searching for a pulse. He found it, rapid and uneven, and saw his chest rise and fall shallowly.

The door to the stairs flew open and Lockhart stepped out, shoving a pipe into the door to hold it open, a plastic bag hanging taut from her arm. She set the bag down in the shade and sprinted over to the box.

"Dear god…" She breathed.

Cid straightened enough to get his legs under him. "Pulse is fast, but he's not breathing right. Get his legs."

He moved to the top of the box, trying not to contact the hot outside plating, and worked his arms under the unconscious younger man's shoulders. Pulling him semi-upright, Cid locked his arms around Leon's chest and set his feet against the box, lifting his torso out of the heated death chamber.

Lockhart had gotten a hold of his knees and together they hefted him out of the box. Cid jerked his head toward the shade and grunted as they carried the slack body to the part of the roof not being burned by the sun.

"Easy." Cid hissed, his back protesting as they lowered Leon to the concrete.

Leon remained unresponsive and Cid checked his pulse again. Too fast. His skin was too red. His breathing was too labored. His hair was wet and slick with sweat, but the rest of him wasn't. He wasn't sweating. Looked like heat stroke, pretty bad too.

"We need to cool him off or he'll go into cardiac arrest." Lockhart was saying, unscrewing a bottle of water.

Cid didn't bother with a smart remark, but instead opted for opening a second bottle. He'd spent four years around battle in every kind of environment, particularly desert. He knew how to handle a heat stroke casualty, thank you very much.

Tifa tipped the bottle over, pouring the chilled water on Leon's chest and neck. He groaned and flinched at the contact, lost in some delirium or oblivion. Cid clapped a hand around his upper arm to anchor Leon to reality.

"Yeah, I know. It hurts." He muttered the litany under his breath. "Feel free to cuss me out. Hell, I'd feel better if you did."

Leon didn't rise to such a request and Cid poured the rest of his bottle over his arms, tossing the empty plastic aside while Lockhart twisted open her second bottle. Still bothered by the sound of Leon's breathing, Cid carefully rolled him onto his side, making sure his airways were as clear as possible. Leon twitched as though to curl into himself, but Cid kept his hand on his arm.

"Huh uh, you ain't cold. Your brain's fried and thinks you're cold." He muttered, mostly for himself.

Twisting open another bottle, Cid splashed the water over Leon's back and emptied it out over his head, hoping the water would pull enough heat out of his body to lower his core temperature from the danger zone. The red spot on the concrete caught his eye and he looked from the blood to pink-tinted water running down Leon's neck.

"Shit." He snarled, leaning closer to inspect the wound.

Yeah, that would be the only way to take a guy like Leon down and wrangle him into a deep freezer: smack him in the head from behind. Cowardly bastards. Cid grimaced. It didn't look deep, but head wounds always bled like Hell and looked a lot worse than they were. Cupping his other hand around the back of his head to put pressure on the wound, Cid glanced around the roof.

This had been pre-meditated. Nobody lugged a freezer that big onto a roof on a whim. Whatever shit-mouthed asses had done this, they had been planning it. That was even worse because it wasn't spur of the moment stupid. It was plotted murder.

Leon shifted and his eyes pinched closed, mumbling inaudibly.

"Leon, hey, you comin' around?" Cid jumped on the movement.

With an obvious amount of force, Leon pried his eyes open: glazed and out of focus. Nice and concussed, Cid thought dryly.

"You with us?" He grunted.

Leon swallowed and his throat seemed to work extra hard to accomplish the task. "Yeah."

Cid looked to Lockhart. "See if you can dig up a towel. I don't like this gash hanging open."

Lockhart set her open water bottle down and stood off her knees, "Right."

While she hurried off, Cid asked Leon. "Everything workin'?"

Leon shifted a little in reply, testing his joints and muscle response. It didn't look like the movements were causing too much pain. First yay of the day.

"Yeah." He grunted.

"Cooling off any?"

"Yeah."

"Head hurt?"

"…yeah."

He sounded exhausted and looked like crap. Cid smirked wryly. Now that the adrenaline had passed and Leon wasn't a melted blob, Cid's body was starting to remind him that it was damn hot out here. The shade was providing relief from the sun, but the air itself felt like being trapped in a stove. Leon got one elbow under him and started to push himself up.

"Ah, ah," Cid poked him in the shoulder, "Stay down for just a minute."

As Leon begrudgingly sank back to the concrete, Cid retracted his hand and wiped the blood on his pant leg. The younger man hated being mother-henned and all otherwise being taken care of, that much Cid knew. In addition, Cid wasn't much of a poke and prod, maternal sort either. So the system worked. Regardless, dehydration was a bitch. Cid opened a fresh bottle of water and grimaced at how shaky Leon was, not steady enough to handle the water.

"Here," Cid helped him take a few swallows of water. "How many fingers am I holdin' up?"

Leon opened one eye and glared up at him.

"Concussion check, I don't make up this stuff." Cid said, lifting three fingers. "How many?"

"Three."

"Spell your name."

"L-E-O-N."

"What kind of weapon do you—"

"A Gunblade." Leon interrupted, "Satisfied?"

Cid opened a fresh bottle of water and drank some himself. "Smart ass."

Lockhart emerged once again from the stairs, a roll of paper towels in her hand. "It's all janitorial and cleaning stuff in there. This is the best I could dig up."

"That'll work until we get back to Merlin's." Cid unwound a few stretches of paper towel, folding it a few times and turning to Leon. "Hold still."

Frowning, Leon reached a hand up and gingerly prodded at the back of his head. Hitting the open gash, he winced and let out a low curse, looking at the red on his fingers.

Cid snorted, "Like a friggin' four year old." He chided, placing the makeshift gauze over the wound and holding it there.

"We should get somewhere cooler." Lockhart asked after a moment of scrutinizing Leon for signs of relapse.

Cid stood up, throwing back the rest of his bottled water in two swallows. Man, if only it was whiskey. It was a whiskey kind of day. "Best damn thing I've heard all day."

His back complained and he stretched. He was only in his late-thirties, he shouldn't feel this old already. Too many war moments had ruined his joints, and lifting Leon out of that box hadn't helped. The guy was pure muscle glued to bone and solid as a truck. Eh, he'd get his eventually.

"All right, macho, now let's try the sitting up thing." Cid said, kneeling beside Leon and tossing Lockhart a bottle of water to keep herself hydrated.

Leon more or less got a shaky elbow set and levered himself up a few precious inches. The heat had sapped all the other strength out of him. Cid got an arm under his shoulders to keep him from falling down and checked the head wound.

"Not bleeding anymore. Gold star for not being a big bleeder." He grunted.

Lockhart remained standing, consistently draining her bottle of water and consciously looking around the roof, as though some baddie was gonna jump them or something. Cid let her to whatever made her feel better and focused instead on getting Leon to his feet. Despite having been doused with water, the younger man was still dangerously warm.

Cid practically pulled them both to their feet. Muscle spasms had set in and lack of oxygen in the blood was keeping Leon from contributing much strength. Cid had had his fair share of run-ins on the ugly side of heat stroke. He empathized with the weakness and the accompanying frustration.

"Gonna make it, soldier?" He grunted with a smirk.

Leon mumbled something along the lines of "Shut up", possibly with a few extra words in there for good measure on how he felt about being half-carried. Cid promptly ignored him and they made their way over to the stairwell door. Lockhart gathered up the remaining bottles of water and Leon's phone and cast the deep freezer a dark look, before following after them.

They crossed into the flat of afternoon sunlight that fell between the shade and the door. Leon grimaced as the few precious degrees returned with the light and Cid shuffled faster, one of Leon's arms pulled over his shoulders. Cid grunted and dropped his free arm around the small of Leon's back, taking more of his weight.

"He needs a hospital." Lockhart said quietly but sternly as she opened the door wide.

Cid offered her a cursory look. "My expertise matches a medic's in this case. What're they gonna do that we can't outside the cold, uncomfortable ER? Cold compresses, water, and sleep." He shifted his grip on the ever-slackening younger man. "Besides, I get him admitted to a hospital, HE will lock ME in a deeper freezer."

Lockhart narrowed her gaze, following them into the stairway. "At least he'd be able to."

Cid didn't respond beyond a snort and slowly taking the first few descending steps. Leon was getting heavier, not holding his weight as much. Any energy he'd gotten back had already been expended. The continual motion and heat weren't helping. By the time they reached ground level, Cid was seriously considering just throwing him over his shoulder and fireman-carrying him back to Merlin's. Fortunately or unfortunately, Leon was still conscious enough to oppose that idea.

Luckily, when Lockhart opened the warehouse exit door, the sun had dipped enough below the skyline of Radiant Garden for the immediate light to be blocked by the taller downtown buildings. Cid let Leon sink onto the outside bench and Lockhart passed around a few more bottles of water. She'd named herself head of the Hydration Brigade, which was fine by Cid. One less thing for him to worry about.

"So what exactly happened?" Lockhart asked, polishing off her water first. "How did he end up…up there?" She nodded her head toward the roof.

Cid chugged half of his water and splashed the rest of it over his head. "Buncha dumbass civilians think they know how to handle things. That and they aren't happy with the 90 percent protection. They only see the 10 percent we miss."

Leon was leaning forward, elbows on his knees, face in his hands, grumbling something.

"Come again?" Lockhart asked, upturning another bottle of water over Leon's head.

He shuddered at the contact, eyes closed against his fingers. "Distract…call…"

"Uh huh." Cid smirked, looking to Lockhart, "Call up Merlin and have him send Yuffie and Aerith to the Bailey to inspect…" He thought a moment, "…a possible Heartless sighting."

Lockhart scowled, but pulled out her phone. "You want me to lie?"

Cid whistled, "You don't know those two. They see a papercut, Yuffie's calling priests and Aerith's whipping out elixirs." He grasped Leon's shoulder and pulled him slowly upright. "They get one look at this, and they'll go ballistic."

With a consciously heavy sigh, Lockhart dialed Merlin's number. Cid hid a grin and leaned toward Leon. He gripped his wrist and put his shoulder against Leon's sternum, straightening and pulling Leon over his shoulders. Leon groaned and ground out some garbled excuse to try and get out of it, but Cid chuckled.

"Sorry, princess. You aren't walking to Merlin's on your own steam." He shifted under the heat coming off Leon's person. "And you got plenty of that."

Lockhart hung up the phone, "Consider them distracted. Merlin's still at the house, will he be calling priests or busting out healing items? Because that would be just awful, apparently."

Cid started walking. "Lady, you are a piece of work." Practically feeling her glare burning into his back, he added. "No, Merlin isn't a mother hen."

"So you're just not to going to tell any of them that somebody tried to kill Leon?" Lockhart kept pace as they started toward the square.

"It's not for me to tell. He was the one who said to distract them." Cid replied.

"He's delirious." She snapped back.

"He's a big boy." He responded lackadaisically.

"He's not deaf." Leon muttered grumpily.

"See?" Cid looked to Lockhart, "Under control."

"I still think he should get looked at by a doctor." Lockhart hissed under her breath.

"Well, welcome to the war effort." Cid grunted.

Other than the occasional grumble, they reached Merlin's house a few minutes later. As promised, Yuffie and Aerith were summarily gone for the next hour. Merlin opened the door and took one look at the trio: Lockhart with narrowed eyes and deepset frown, Cid with the body thrown over his shoulders, and Leon by now unconscious again, and heaved a sigh.

"It's sad that this is just a Tuesday." The sorcerer said, holding the door open.

Cid turned and side stepped into the small house, never happier to feel the cool breath of air conditioning. Lockhart stepped in after him, acknowledging Merlin with a respectful nod, which Merlin returned with a slightly puzzled look.

"Dear, I thought you would have flown out last week." He started.

Cid inwardly groaned and crossed to the stairs in the back of the first floor.

"Flown out where?" Lockhart asked.

"Land of Dragons. Cloud was shipped out there last week, if memory serves me." Merlin replied.

Cid bit back a curse and started up the stairs.

"You knew, didn't you?" Lockhart hissed after him.

He offered her a flat look, "Must have slipped my mind between things I don't care about and things I care nothing about."

She clenched her fists. "Why would you hide—"

Cid lifted a hand, "If you don't mind, he's gone into shock and I'm pretty sure that's not a good thing. So how about you hold off on the patronizing lecture about honesty and let me do my job?"

If the younger woman had narrowed her gaze further, her eyes would have been closed.

"And what exactly is your job?" She spat.

Cid ascended a few more steps, minding not to knock Leon's head against the wall. "Keeping my people alive."

Without waiting for a response, he toted Leon the rest of the way up onto the second floor landing and kicked the door closed after him. He wordlessly eased Leon into the nearest wingback chair. At the change of altitude, Leon's eyes fell open and blinked up at Cid, looking mildly confused.

"We're back at Merlin's. Air conditioning, gift of the gods, eh?" Cid started, making sure he was steady before walking over to the small fridge against the wall.

The fridge was full of chilled water, fresh ice, and cold compresses. Merlin. The old man was a royal pain in the ass, but he was nothing if not prepared. The whole magic thing helped too. Cid poured a glass of water and handed it to Leon, who was steadying slightly.

"Hydrate." He offered, pulling out two compresses and breaking them loose.

"Got anything…stronger?" Leon grunted.

Cid snorted, "Saving it for me, man."

Unfortunately the old sorcerer was a prude and didn't stock alcohol. Frowning only for the sake of it, Cid sighed and folded his arms, leaning slightly against the chest of drawers. He pulled out his pack of cigarettes, fondly slid one out, and held it between his lips, patting his pockets until he located his lighter. Lighting up, he inhaled and felt his nerves instantly begin to ease, watching Leon with nonchalant disinterest.

Something he'd learned in the few years he'd known Leon and the others, show concern in moderation. Aerith was a giver, a lover, and a healer. Yuffie was…a smart mouth and a pick pocket, honestly. Lockhart was a mite over-zealous, but her heart was in the right place. Leon liked to think of himself as an enigma, but he wasn't all that hard to figure out. So the system worked.

Cid knew he'd be lying if he said he didn't understand the guy. Since Radiant Garden Restoration had taken affect though, he had noticed a little less weight on Leon's shoulders. He didn't know about any spring in his step, but being back home, not Traverse Town or some other place but HOME, had to make a guy feel better. Well, until your fellow natives get their panties in a wad and stuff you in a freezer and leave you to die.

That would take some getting over.

Leon caught his eye and set the glass on the nearby desk. "I'm fine."

"Sure, sure." Cid picked up one of the compresses, which by now was ice cold, and held it out.

Damaged pride didn't outweigh painful hyperthermia, and Leon took the compress without much persuasion, flattening it over the back of his neck and leaning forward, not having the energy to stifle the sigh of relief. Cid took a long drag from his cigarette. Leon stared at the floor despondently.

"I fixed the Security System. It was up and running when I left. It wasn't five minutes before they showed up. I didn't even get a decent shot of their faces. They hit me from behind." Leon muttered, looking annoyed. "Woke up in that box and couldn't get out. It was too hot and I had no idea where I was, so you were the first number in my phone."

Cid watched him without watching him, another cool trick he'd learned. Technically, his eyes were on the footboard of the nearest twin bed, but his attention was on Leon, slouched forward in the chair, looking as broken and shaky as the day the older man pulled him and his friends out of Radiant Garden as the Heartless invaded. Except this time it wasn't Heartless. It damn flesh and blood humans.

Clenching his jaw, Cid offered his pack of cigarettes. Leon lifted his eyes enough to look at the pack, to Cid, to the pack, and offer a weak shake of the head and a chuckle. No 'it'll be okay's or 'you're safe now's or even 'we'll find those responsible's. He was no wet nurse and Leon was no carebear. Besides, he was already gonna make damn sure Leon was okay, was already damn sure he was safe, and knew damn well Leon was gonna hunt down those bastards later.

"I'm gonna give Lockhart something to do besides try to kill me with her mind." Cid pointed his thumb to the door. "The others should be out for a while, so if you need anything, I'm downstairs."

Leon bobbed his head a few times, probably trying to work up the stamina to go take a cold shower. Hell, Cid cared about the guy, but if his life wasn't in danger, he was letting him to it alone.

"Thanks." Leon muttered, dragging himself to his feet as Cid left.

Cid closed the door and clomped down the stairs, sort of surprised but then not surprised to find Lockhart still at attention downstairs. She had stationed herself on the computer, no doubt hunting down Cloud via internet. Cyberspace could be a really creepy zone sometimes. Merlin was poring over his spellbooks…How typecast could you get?

"Good news, the patient is going to live." He announced melodramatically.

"Splendid, splendid." Merlin chirped. "May I inquire as to what put him in such a state?"

Lockhart mumbled something, but Cid didn't try to decipher her ill-tempered response.

"Sounds like just some idiots who don't like the Committee trying to make their lives safer." Cid said, striding over to the first floor bathroom.

"Oh." Merlin frowned, "Will he be all right?"

"Peachy." Cid tossed over his shoulder before disappearing into the bathroom.

A good half hour of cold shower later, Cid emerged in dry clothes and a better attitude. Merlin looked up from a steaming cauldron, glasses fogged with the steam.

"Ah, Hell, Merlin, the ventilation in here is crappy enough as it is." Cid said, waving the smoke from his face.

Merlin tutted. "You would do good to sample some of it too."

"Too?" Cid coughed, steering clear of the big black bowl.

"Just a little formula I whipped up. Handy for dehydration. One bottle and it'll hydrate you right back up with water." Merlin said, looking mighty proud of himself. "I advised Leon to take some after you went into the shower." He offered a bottle of it.

"Did he explode?" Cid snorted, taking a pull from the bottle.

The liquid hit the back of his teeth like a hammer. He gagged on it and spat the stuff out.

"No, but he did do that." Merlin observed quietly.

"What the hell is this? Ass and burnt foot?" Cid wiped his mouth.

"It's safe and better than sticking one of those blasted intravenous needles in him." Merlin said pompously.

"Can I mix it with whiskey or something?" Cid said, rubbing his tongue clean of the stuff.

Merlin sighed, "No appreciation for the arts. You're like some vulgar baboon." When Cid just lifted his eyebrows, the sorcerer nodded, "Yes, you can mix it with alcohol."

Cid nodded in gratitude and pulled his safety bottle of whiskey out of the bookshelf, looking around the rest of the Great Room. Lockhart was no longer planted in front of the computer. She was gone actually. Probably to Land of Dragons. Cid grimaced, poured the horrid potion into the half-full whiskey bottle, and swilled it around to mix.

"Where'd she go?" He asked, trying out the concoction again.

It still burned, but at least the burn of the potion was covered by the burn of the whiskey as it scorched down his throat and warmed his gut. At the same time, he could feel the hydration cocktail spreading and working its magic.

"She didn't say. I didn't ask." Merlin lifted his shoulders.

"How's—" Cid jerked his head toward the stairs.

Merlin adjusted his half-moon spectacles. "Exhausted and irritable. Take your pick."

Chugging on the whiskey, Cid turned toward the stairs. "I'll go make sure your little magic cocktail didn't short out his brain. Then I'm hitting the hay for at least two days."

Merlin waved him off and went back to bottling his potions. Cid lumbered up the stairs, making sure to be nice and noisy. A vulnerable and weakened Leon was still a Leon that would kill you if you just strolled in on him unawares. He was quiet enough though that if the younger man was truly asleep, he wouldn't wake him up. Sleep deprived Leon was almost as bad.

Turning the knob and sliding the door open deliberately, Cid was pleased to see that Leon had at least landed on the bed. Collapsing to the floor or over a desk or…Ansem forbid, in the shower…would have been embarrassing not to mention awkward. Cid swallowed another mouthful of whiskey-water and crossed over to him.

Quick assessment told him all he needed to know. Most of the pink flush to his skin had faded, his breathing was shallow and even, and he was sprawled on his stomach the length of the bed. As close to peaceful as he ever got. Merlin must have spiked his hydro-potion with healing potion because the gash on the back of his head had disappeared. Cid finished off the rest of his miracle bottle and picked up the cold compress from the chest of drawers. It was still cold.

"You awake?" He said, just loud enough for a conscious mind to register.

"No." was the grunted response after a beat.

Cid smirked and walked over. "You drink that ass slop Merlin whipped up?"

Another grunt.

"Concussion check, sorry." Cid said apologetically, holding up four fingers.

Leon opened one eye, glaring hotly up at him. "Four. L-E-O-N. Gunblade."

Cid's grin widened, "Smartass." He held up the ice bag. "I got that cold compress. You still want it?"

"Leave it."

Cid tossed it onto the bed, within Leon's reach, and started back toward the door. "Well, I'll leave you to it then. Somebo—I'll be up in a few hours for another check."

"I hate you."

"Yeah, I know." Cid closed the door behind him, sauntering back down the stairs.

Lockhart was leaning against one wall, staring at the floor. Cid slowed his pace as he descended the stairs, narrowing one eye at her. He'd figured she'd be halfway to Land of Dragons by now. She looked up when Cid reached the first floor.

"Oh, Miss Lockhart is back." Merlin noted.

"Yeah, I got that." Cid rebuked, but there was no heat in it. There'd been enough heat today. "What do you need, Lockhart?"

The young woman swallowed, "I needed to get some air, that crazy potion fumed up the place."

Cid smirked, "Fair enough. What brings you back?"

She narrowed her eyes indignantly, "I wanted to make sure Leon was okay. Contrary to your belief, I'm not some crazed stalker chasing after Cloud, okay?"

Cid lifted his hands, "Never said you were." She looked sincere enough. "He's fine, asleep now and cranky as Hell. Almost back to normal."

Lockhart looked relieved. "Can you give him something for me?"

Cid quirked an eyebrow at her. "I don't do Get Well Soon cards."

She pulled a slip of folded paper from her pocket. "This isn't. It's just a—Just make sure he gets it, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, fine, okay." He waved her off, taking the paper. "Is it…secret or why the folding?"

"No, you're welcome to it." She lifted her shoulders, turning toward the door. "NOW I'm off to Land of Dragons."

Cid looked at the paper before looking up at her. "Oh, I judge you."

She didn't respond, just closed the door behind her as she left. Cid watched the door with a blank look for a moment before turning to Merlin.

"Women." Cid shook his head, opening the paper.

"What did she leave behind?" Merlin asked.

Cid glanced over the words on the paper, frowning, the lines on his forehead deepening as he read the information she'd scribbled down. Pursing his lips, he folded it back and set it on the bookshelf by the bottles of scotch.

"What did it say?" Merlin prodded.

"She tracked down the names and locations of all the people who jumped Leon this afternoon." Cid said quietly.

"Oh, dear. How could she have done that in so few hours?"

"I don't know, but I owe her a drink for it."

What little sleep Cid got that night was hardly sleep at all. After hours of restless tossing and turning, he dragged himself out of bed a little after six in the morning. He'd stopped with the concussion checks not long after dusk. Leon had been coherent and lucid enough that they were unnecessary anymore.

Cid stretched and walked out into Merlin's living room. That god-awful potion had been cleared away and most of the fumes had dissipated, though the smell still lingered. Grunting, he pulled out a cigarette and lit up, sinking into the couch with exhaustion. He had been planning on going to work on his newest Gummi project out in the hangar today…but he just didn't have the energy for it today.

Yuffie and Aerith had come back in late that night. Apparently after being derailed by a faux Heartless sighting, they had walked around town, getting a feel of how the citizens were coping with the new-old security system. They had reported that civil conscience was improving, if still downhearted.

Right, improving their conscience by trying to kill a man, Cid shook his head and took a drag from his cigarette, tilting his head back as his nerves settled. Opening his eyes to glare at the ceiling, he saw the corner of Lockhart's note sticking out of the bookshelf above him. Frowning, he reached up and plucked it from its spot, turning it over a few times without opening it.

Yuffie had reacted less vigorously than he had expected. Hell, he couldn't have NOT told them what happened. Aerith was more concerned over whether Leon was okay than Yuffie. Sure, the hyperactive girl had nearly bolted up the stairs to check on him, but she was easily distracted by ideas of how to punish the people responsible.

By then, Cid's shit tolerance had run out and he just couldn't handle her. So Aerith distracted her with something…he couldn't even remember. Didn't really care, as long as it got her doing something other than annoying him. Aerith had then headed upstairs for her own assessment of Leon. Cid guessed the guy had shooed her out quick enough, because she came down after only a few minutes, looking slightly insulted. Cid had just chuckled and jumped on Merlin again for stinking up the house.

Foot steps clunked down the stairs and Cid exhaled a lungful of smoke, twisting his head to see Leon reach the first floor. Solid and stable, he was pleased to see.

"Hey." Cid grunted in greeting, puffing on the cigarette again.

"Hey." Leon replied absently, looking around the room as though self conscious.

He was fully dressed and had that chilly look in his eye that Cid had come to recognize and familiarize with. It was the look that said some bitches were getting whacked today. Cid grinned around his cigarette and held up Lockhart's note.

"What's the battle plan for today?" He asked casually.

Leon exhaled slowly, "Justice."

Cid looked him up and down. "Sounds about right." He lifted the note. "This might help."

Quirking one eyebrow, Leon took the paper and unfolded it. Cid watched his eyes dart across the lines, down the list of names. His expression darkened and the older pilot scratched the back of his head. Today was going to be one of those multi-pack of cancer-sticks days.

"Thanks." Leon said quietly after finishing, folding the paper back up and pocketing it.

"Don't thank me. Lockhart tracked 'em all down yesterday." Cid said.

Leon pursed his lips. "Well, if you see her, thank her for me."

As he watched the younger soldier walk across the living room toward the front door, his whole body tensed and emanating vengeance, Cid sat up a little.

"Hey, Leon?"

Leon paused at the door, half turning back toward Cid. "What?"

"Don't be going and getting stuck in a pizza oven today, okay? Because you're on your own with that one." Cid said dryly, sticking his cigarette back in his mouth.

Leon visibly relaxed at that. "I'll keep that in mind."

He closed the door behind him and Cid reclined in his seat, alone in the house. He kept his cell phone on though, just in case.


End file.
